How to read and feel dotted rhythm!
What is rhythm?
Rhythm is a pattern of different lengths of notes, with both long and short note values. These patterns usually make a piece of music memorable and unique. A rhythmic pattern can consist of any note values in any order. For example quaver- quaver- crotchet- quaver- quaver- crotchet is the iconic rhythm used in We Will Rock You by Queen and known across the globe.
The famous We Will Rock You rhythm in 4/4 time signature, using the words coffee-tea
We can make the same sounding rhythm out of this pattern too, using notes of double the length: crotchet - crotchet - minim - crotchet - crotchet - minim.
We Will Rock You in a 4/2 time signature
Students get so used reading basic value notes like crotchets = 1 beat, minims = 2 or semibreve = 4 and following straight rhythms consisting of those notes. It’s like our 1+1 or 2+2 in maths - very straightforward once we learn how to add up these simple numbers.
Things start to get more complex when we disrupt the basic values by attaching other smaller values to them like “one and a half” or “half plus a quarter”.
The same goes for our rhythm. Patterns using dotted notes which are notes with a small dot written after them can be tricky as one has to increase the duration of the basic note which has the dot by half of its original value.
Different value dotted notes
So when the original note is now longer due to the dot, students often struggle to feel the value of this dot, which is essentially half of the next beat. They tend to rush the dotted note or make it way too long! It can also be problematic for students to mathematically work out the rhythm by counting out loud.
Because the dotted note “borrowed” the first half of the next beat, the short note that follows the dotted note therefore falls on the second half of the beat, and this causes what we call syncopation.
Syncopation is a disturbance of the regular flow of rhythm against beats/pulse where rhythmic stresses or accents are placed where they normally would not take place.
For example: In 4/4 time signature, placing a quaver on the second half of beat one instead of the beginning
Or in 4/8 time signature, placing a semiquaver on the second half of beat one instead of the beginning.
A typical syncopation in music
Memorise the sound of patters!
Let’s have a look at another example:
Dotted crotchet followed by a quaver- crotchet- crotchet in a 4/4 time signature.
You can memorise the sound of these rhythmic patterns so next time you spot them in your music, you will not need to decode them anymore. The sound of these and other similar rhythmic patterns can be stored in your long term memory and recalled when you come across them.
When we read sentences and phrases, we can predict how the sentence will flow based on key words, without even getting to the end of the sentence. How? By reading about similar topics over and over, we visually encounter the same words and phrases many times over, and our brain builds a library of these different phrases in our heads, so that we can recognise them more quickly the next time we see them. We can even hear them in our heads as we read.
The same goes for written music. You see a rhythmic or melodic pattern of notes and your brain is able to immediately recall the sounds due to familiarity and years of experience in seeing and listening to these patterns.
Another interesting tip!
Did you know that the sounds of these patterns are transferrable. What do I mean by this?
Let’s use the same example in 4/4 time signature as above:
If you see a dotted crotchet note followed by a quaver and crotchet and another crotchet and store the sound of this pattern in your memory, you can be sure that the sound of a dotted rhythm pattern using double or half the note values would sound exactly the same.
Let’s demonstrate:
In 4/2 time signature:
Dotted Minim - crotchet - minim - minim
Rhythm in 4/2 time signature, has the same sounding pattern as the above pattern in 4/4
In 4/8 time signature:
Dotted quaver - semiquaver - quaver - quaver
Do you see the relationship of these values?
We have a dotted note followed by a note that is half the value of the first note and then followed by two more notes of the original value. The sounds of these two rhythms will be the same. What makes the notation different is the time signature, and therefore the value of the main beat has changed as a result - not the sound of the dotted rhythm.
Hopefully you found the above explanations helpful and that you will apply them when you spot a dotted rhythm in your next piece.
All the best on your musical journey!
🎵 Love ❤️, Ashbea Music 🎵
